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Where does the word at the beggining of the prompt on my MacBook Pro terminal come from?

At the moment, it looks like this

Last login: Fri Oct 14 12:55:34 on ttys000
sherrythinkpad:~ ConfusedNoob$ 
sherrythinkpad:~ ConfusedNoob$

Obviously, the ConfusedNoob is my username - but where on Earth is sherrythinkpad coming from?

Giacomo1968
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ConfusedNoob
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1 Answers1

14

Terminal is showing you the first label of your BSD hostname (assuming your shell is BASH). If your BSD hostname is yourhostname.mynetwork.com then Terminal will display only yourhostname-

So from where does the BSD hostname come? It can come from several places:

  • From the file: /etc/hostconfig

  • Else from the file: /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist (System ▸ System ▸ HostName)

  • Else the result of a reverse DNS query for your primary IP address (so you might notice a totally different hostname showing up when you visit an internet café than when connected at home)

  • Else your "Bonjour" hostname in System Preferences > Sharing (preferences.plist again... System ▸ Network ▸ HostNames ▸ LocalHostName)

  • Finally, if none of the above have been set, the BSD hostname will be simply localhost

Giacomo1968
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username
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